Maldondao honey, from the farm to your table

Is that where honey is grown? In a farm? I´m kidding, but to this day I remember asking for Fanta trees and french fries trees as a small, city-bred child. Anyway, Uruguay affords us the chance to indulge in the oh so popular trend of buying local, and of consuming organic food and produce, and as we're discovering, often there´s free home delivery thrown in as well.

To make it more apropos to our expat/English Speaking theme, a local Uruguayan family with with a British heritage -- Francisco and James Bloomfield -- and a house in Solis, is producing this honey in the Cerros Azules area of western Maldonado.

A kilogram jar costs just 130 pesos, and will be delivered free to your door (that is, if you live between Solis and Punta del Este. For other locations write to James and ask.) The Bloomfields are also offering bee pollen, at 110 pesos per 200 gram jar.

This honey is produced by bees feeding on native forest and eucalyptus, as told to me by James Bloomfield, who stressed the absence of any additives of any kind. Pure pure honey. For those with farms, they also install beehives to aid with pollinization.


For orders or enquiries, write to James themontevidean at adinet dot com dot uy or call him at 099 252572

099 252572

Cooking classes

We're on the mailing list for View Point restaurant and café, and so we receive all their promotional announcements. This one I find interesting: they are offering cooking classes, starting on September 2. Call 042-44-80-15 to reserve your spot.

Their food is "gourmet" and although I´ve only been at the café (fantastic sandwiches, to-die-for pastries, etc., and pricey) and I have tasted their catering (top notch, with excellent presentation, service and as I remember, an incredible risotto and outstanding desserts) I would venture that whatever one learns in their course would be good for showing off when hosting a dinner party at home.

For those out there interested in the subject, there are lots of cooking courses to be had at the Universitario Gastronomico de Punta del Este, located across from the back parking lot of the Punta Shopping mall. The UG is structured like a formal degree issuing university institution, hence its name, but it also offers short courses or "seminars" on everything from olive oil selection to Jewish cuisine 101. Check out their website for the course offering, www.ug.edu.uy, email info@ug.edu.uy, or call 042-48-07-45.

Summer in August, we have that too!

Expecting to see a weather forecast that would include a massive storm for this evening or tomorrow, I logged on to find an entire week of balmy weather ahead of us. 

If we are to believe the weather people, today is actually the coolest day, with temperatures rising progressively to the high 20s (upper 70sF) until they drop on Monday.

Great way to celebrate Indpendence Day today, for those who are not working. 

Where do you live? In the Uruguayan Riviera...

I always thought it was very cheesy when people talked about the Turkish Riviera, back when I was a Turkish Rivieran, and now, watching my place of residence become the Uruguayan Riviera, I can´t help but snort with laughter.

The Daily Mail provides the latest in free destination publicity, of the "this is an article about Punta del Este, but forget Punta del Este which I didn´t really visit, and go to Jose Ignacio, stop at La Huella, then go to Garzón, meet Mallmann, and don´t forget to have dinner at Marismo, that´s what us people in the know do".

Love it when, on second reference, Jose Ignacio becomes "Jose." It´s possibly the revenge against the Spanish language for dwellers of the River Plate calling a personal trainer "el pérsonal."

Frankly, when my friend Viia wrote the template for this article for Forbes about 3 years ago, well, she "designed the tour" for all them googlers with a press pass out there, so to speak, and did it well, and besides having written the first and best of such articles, she also did write about Punta del Este! OK, disclaimer, she did quote us in the article, but so did other reporters, none of whom compare to fabulous Viia.

Maybe my not-so-elated reaction derives from the fact that "Punta del Este, former St. Tropez, current Miami beach" story is old news. Bottom line is, we need a new story.

A risky combo: off-plan investment + non-local developers

Every time I read about British buyers being creamed by this or that real-estate fiasco somewhere around the globe (more often than not in Spain, or at the hand of Spanish developers), somewhere in the first or second quote from the hapless buyer is a mention of "dreams destroyed". But beyond the archetypical fleeced Briton, and considering our real-estate universe here in Punta, the subject of off-plan, or pre-construction sales is worth contemplating carefully.

In the land of no-credit-no-mortgage, off-plan is the status quo, more or less the only way to develop, and a way to ease the pain of having to pay for a property in cash.

The way it works is the buyer signs a purchase commitment with about 10% to 20% down, proceeds to pay monthly installments for some 18 to 24 months for about 30% to 50% of the value until completion and possession of the unit, at which point the buyer either pays the balance or takes on vendor credit at a moderate interest rate --compared with bank rates-- for one or two years. There are variations to this schedule depending on when the buyer comes in.

The attraction is the prospect of "built-in" price appreciation, knowing that as construction and sales go forward, the developers steadily raise the price of the remaining units, with anywhere between 15% to 20% appreciation being standard during normal times, and up to 100% value increase in the crazy times we're living. Not to mention the "forced savings" aspect of this scheme, whereby buyers undertake a commitment to pay off a property in a couple of years, while they earn or put some other property up for sale, while locking in the price of their purchase.

But of course there's always the risk of the building never reaching completion, and even, as mentioned in the article in The Times linked above, a very real risk of the project never breaking ground, regardless of economic or global financial conditions. Our Roosevelt Ave. still shows a few decades-old carcasses of past busts. The wonderful Acqua building was built on the site of a failed hotel, the Yoo tower is basically frosting on an "antique" concrete skeleton.

In the case of Spain, countless developers went broke, went to jail or pulled back from their plans as the market turned bad, leaving tens of thousands of "broken dreams". In Dubai, $24 billion worth of projects was cancelled or "put on hold."

But in Brazil and even in Uruguay, there is a pattern of foreign developers being the ones who stumbled and even failed in the recent downturn, and there may be a cautionary tale in this.

To begin with, the absence of legal requirements such as a bond guaranteeing the completion of the project means that once the foreign developer goes belly-up or simply packs up his tent and hops on the next flight out, aggrieved buyers have little to go against in trying to recover their money. It's lost.

But also, from a common sense stand-point, those developers are less likely than local ones to pull those projects to fruition when the going gets rough. They are less likely to have access to lifeline credit locally, due to their lack of commercial standing, and at home they might find their financiers less excited about a venture that is encountering difficulties in some third world country. "But my project is located in the most premium spot!!!" Well, that may mean nothing a few time zones and a hemisphere away.

In addition, the foreign developer often designs for foreigners, in effect shutting out the natural pool of buyers, i.e. locals. So they are faced with selling not a property, but a country first, then a development, and lastly a particular property, a much tougher and costlier proposition than just looking around at what sells locally, and aiming for that constituency.

I'd like to clarify that in Uruguay, "local" includes developers from Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Their background can be checked locally if they have a history in development, or in its absence, in their native countries, as "everyone knows everyone" here, and we can easily run a "creditworthiness check" from someone in Rosario, Argentina, or Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Difficulties are not limited to liquidity or finances, but also come into play in the operational sphere. Does your developer know the intricacies of the local approvals process? Or is he or she going to be doing time in bureaucratic purgatory, resulting in bankruptcy when the project runs out of cash and cannot generate sales due to missing approvals? Is your developer working with a well established local construction company with solid relationships that will ensure the project will not encounter labor troubles? (SUNCA, the construction union, seems to be particularly fond of striking or occupying sites owned by non-local developers).

In sum, the warning is that the attraction of buying from developers who "speak your language" may provide a false sense of security. You may want to make sure that they speak the local language even better.

An English speaking lodge in Minas

I have to confess that the concept behind this place is quite bizarre to me, but still, to each his own. Somebody might find it appealing to go to a place in the hills of Minas (Solís de Mataojo) to hear exclusively English spoken (by native speaking guests, as well as by other non-anglo guests wishing to hone their presumably advanced language skills.)

So for those interested, the place is called Mundo Inglés Silver and is located about one hour from Montevideo and from Punta del Este. The room and board rates quoted do sound quite inexpensive, from US$15 per night to US$25 per day, all meals included, and US$35 with tours.

Come to think about it, if it´s clean, and friendly, for those prices, who cares what language they speak...

There are pictures of the lodging and a lengthier explanation in the website.

Special furniture sale, former furnishings from Citrus restaurant

 

  

One of our members has alerted us to the sale this weekend of the furnishings of former restaurant Citrus. As you can see from the pictures, it´s mostly 50s-70s style stuff. The sale is going on at a warehouse across the street from the former Concorde/Ocean cinema, that round structure on the right hand side at the very end of Gorlero ave.. Frankly I don´t have the street name, but if you wish to get in touch with the owner, email her at aledellepiane7 at hotmail dot com.

The sale is on today (Saturday) and Sunday. We got a very short notice for this (last night), and then forgot to post it! But if you can´t make it, I´m sure you can contact Ale in order to see whatever pieces remain after the weekend.

InterContinental lands in Punta del Este

Today's paper brings "official" news of the long rumored establishment of the InterContinental chain in Uruguay. According to the paper, the hotel will set up shop in Avenida del Mar, in the Lobos complex on the Brava side (presumably behind Torre Lobos) at a cost of US$45 million for the hotel part alone, plus an undisclosed amount for the casino facilities.

The casino hotel --of course it's a casino hotel, now that we're decidedly pursuing our vocation of becoming the Vegas of the South-- is expected to have 250 suites and to generate 400 direct jobs, according the report in the press today.

The arrival of another major chain in a way marks the "growing up" of Punta del Este as a destination. Jointly with the Setai, which is more of a boutique offering, the Conrad, and Mantra, we can now say we have at least 3 large five star hotels and a few world-class boutique hotels. Slow going, but we're getting there in terms of tourism infrastructure. If, as a local expat you're wondering "what's in it for me?" I would say, down the line, greater conveniences such as increased flight frequencies at some point, or more and better service offerings year round, etc. It's all a matter of achieving scale in order to make commerce viable year round.

But the best part for Punta del Este in general, beyond the immediate prospect of jobs in building and setting up the thing, may be the fact that we will have help from a chain with the global reach of InterContinental in attracting off-season travelers, whether to the casino or for what will hopefully be a growing convention travel industry. And lastly, no doubt others such as Marriott will decide to take the plunge and follow suit.

New data gathering by City Hall shows sales of real-estate for US$500M between Nov. and May

One of the features of the Uruguayan real-estate market that is often criticized by foreigners is the absence of statistical data, for example on closing prices for transactions, or of any other nature.

The Maldonado Municipality has come to understand the value of real-estate data, and has undertaken the collection and publication of at least one indicator, total value of real-estate sold in the department, which it shall be publishing every six months. Hopefully the indicator will be the first of many others to be compiled and published by the Intendencia or other agencies.

The initial figure is out today in El Pais, which cites municipal data of US$500 million in sales between the months of November 2008, and May 2009.

Despite the absence of comparative figures, it still sounds like a respectable number considering the reported slowdown in the market in the first half of 2009.

Benefit tea with tarot readers and other esoterica coming up

The organization of Argentine women residing in Punta del Este (what, you thought we were the only expat group around?) is holding their traditional "Te de brujas" on Saturday, Sept. 5, from 5pm on, at the Mantra Hotel.

The proceeds from this tea with tarot readers, numerologists and other folks with "powers" will go to the recently opened Shanti center, an NGO that helps children with autism in Maldonado.

Tickets cost UYU480 and can only be bought or reserved in advance, by calling
042 447 899 / 094 422 397 / 094 236 239

Fashion design fair this weekend

This Saturday, Aug. 23 from 4pm to midnight, and Sunday, from 2pm to 8pm. Independent fashion designers sell clothing and accessories at Hop (the restaurant next to Moby Dick, across from the harbor).

Hot chocolate will be served in the afternoon, and caipiroskas in the evening, with DJ Nachoox spinning chill-out music.

Directions and menu for Sunday lunch at Pachamama

 

The "map" is somewhat on the minimalist side, isn't it? 

Well, in a more verbal way, here's how to get there:

Drive from Punta del Este/Maldonado area towards San Carlos. Once you go through San Carlos town, you will hit a traffic circle, and you have to cross Route 9 and continue on Route 39 north, towards AIGUA. 

On kilometer 48, make a right turn onto a dirt road marked with a sign that says "Sierra de las C añas". 

Go past a bridge, an S curve, and when a road forks on the right, continue straight (don't take the right turn) and immediately you will notice a stone entrance with two palm trees and a sign that says Pachamama. That's it, you've arrived.

Now, for the menu, which, miraculously enough in Uruguay, is pretty much vegetarian:

 

• 
  

  gnocch stuffed with mozzarella, with pink sauce and parmigian cheese 

• 
  

  vegetable cannelloni with pink sauce au gratin 

crepes 

• 
  

  4 cheese

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  caprese (tomato, arugula, basil,oregano y and olive oil) 

• 
  

  cheese and prunes 

• 
  

  cheese and apple 

dessert: 

• 
  

  dulce de leche crepes 

• 
  

  mixed macerated fruits crepes

Please RSVP if you plan to join us, we still have room.

Pictures taken in José Ignacio by one of our members

 

Ricardo Preve has a way with the camera... He was kind enough to allow us to publish his pictures, so here´s a couple taken in the José Ignacio area.

The residence papers expediter / facilitator scam

In the past couple of years I have come to see two different expediters, or facilitators, extolled as the greatest thing since slice bread -- the last Coca-Cola in the desert, as a former boss would say -- only to find out later about the extremely unfortunate experiences undergone by perfectly nice, normal and smart people who have placed their trust in them to help them get their residence papers.

Many of the victims, as it happened, acted on recommendations found online from other expats who had used the services of these expediters. In some instances, the initial experiences were very positive, but later ones poor or disastrous.

Let me put this in context. A few years ago, the figure of the "expediter/facilitator" did not exist as such in Uruguay. Too few people settled here to warrant dedicated specialists. For staff of multinationals, there were always the law firms engaged as legal counsel by the companies. 

Every since the recent influx of expats, combined with the marvels of the Internet, an email address, a cell-phone and a few hours prowling the expat forums and gatherings was enough to launch several expediters´careers, in the cases that most concern us, as fleecers of foreigners. 

Bad experiences go from the petty, like being made to pay for unreasonably lavish meals while on meetings, to plain annoyance, like never really getting your papers in order. 

But it gets worse, down to outright legal and financial disasters, such as being conned by a husband-and-wife team into dubious real-estate purchases with the helpful services of a shadier still escribana. Or going through the unimaginable hell of having your deceased husband´s and your own identity papers taken hostage -- no ransom asked -- by the expediter at the time of your spouse´s death, resulting in a complete logistic and financial shut-down.

Our friend Eddie has written a very detailed article on the issue of obtaining residence, and why the facilitator services are not an absolute necessity. Still, for those who want or need the hand-holding or the convenience of delegating as much as possible of the process, I would go as far as advising to abstain from engaging anyone who does not have a proper business setup, with physical offices, and preferrably another line of business as well. 


That way, you will be ensuring you are not just a dollar or euro dispenser on legs, to be milked for all you have and who knows what else, but rather seen as a "business relationship" to cherish and cultivate for future business. A very active member of the Punta del Este expat community would fit that bill (she has an expatriate services firm, as well as being a partner in a real-estate firm), as would any reputable law firm willing to handle this process for you. 

And if you want to do it on your own, all you need, if you don´t speak great Spanish, is to have someone go with you as an interpreter to one or two interviews. That is, after you have gathered all the required documentation, had it stamped and sealed as demanded by authorities here, authenticated etc. in the Uruguayan consulates in your home country.

La noche de la nostalgia, that wacky nouveau tradition in Uruguay

In case many out there are wondering what "la noche de la nostalgia" means or why we are being bombarded with special programming from every bar, club and hotel for the night of August 24, well, I don´t have a very good explanation.

All I know is that, in my teens, before I left Uruguay, "la noche de la nostalgia" was a party organized once a year by a radio station which was heavy on oldies programming. August 24 happens to be the eve of our national independence day holiday. Fast-forward a couple of decades, and I return to a country where LNDLN has spread like the H1N1 virus. In the interim, a uniquely Uruguayan --and somewhat depressing if you stop to analyze-- tradition has been born: a night when the entire country goes out partying to old hits and cover bands, everyone gets pissed drunk, and many people crash their cars or mopeds.

I have received a few invites already, but basically, it's like New Year's Eve, everyone and their mother "puts on a show" which often includes DJs, live music, and special dinner menus.
Both Viewpoint (the coffee shop&restaurant on Calle 20) and Awa Hotel (on Pedragosa Sierra) have sent us invites.

At Viewpoint, it's gourmet meal with dessert tasting, a bottle of wine per couple, unlimited champagne and DJ for US$60 per person.

At AWA, the offer sounds enticing, as it includes one night and two days' stay, with dinner at the hotel's bistro, and admission to Ocean Club for partying, all for US$115 per person based on double occupancy. Maybe appealing for someone from Montevideo wanting to make a weekend out of it...

Believe me, there are probably dozens of options, I'm just listing two I received mailings for.

And now, Punta Ballena's cry of NIMBY

Last week it was the turn of José Ignacio to manifest its discontent with City Hall via the Uruguayan paper of record, El País. This week, as expected, it´s Punta Ballena.

The contended issue for the Punta Ballena neighborhood association, which is probably the most active and effective in the department of Maldonado, is the impending construction of a two-lane road linking the Montevideo-Punta del Este highway (Ruta Interbalnearia) at the Punta Ballena/Lussich Arboretum junction, with Highway 39 in Maldonado.

Neighbors are incensed and talk about the spirit of the founders of the park, and the quiet neighborhood.

As a frequent user of Camino Lussich, a few thoughts come to mind: Camino Lussich is the de facto artery for heavy (commercial) traffic arriving and departing certain areas of Maldonado, and hence, a) the bucolic air is a thing of a past long gone, and b) Camino Lussich must be among the most dangerous thoroughfares in Punta del Este right now due to its woefully inadequate dimension for the types and volume of traffic it handles, combined with its curvy stretches (as witnessed by the overturned truck full of fish that ended up in the arboretum last week).

The road expansion is hardly "under consideration." A huge stretch of it is already under construction and the clearing work already begun for remaining tracts. But the plan for joining Punta Ballena with Jose Ignacio from Camino Lussich is several decades old, one of those things we have learned to believe would never happen.

When revived in 2006 by the current administration, it was said to cost US$30 million. Now it's being mentioned as a US$60 million project. That's the only difference I could find between reports in the press from 3 years ago and the article this week.

The obvious positive factor would be decongesting all of the Punta del Este Peninsula from heavy and light traffic alike, with both commercial traffic going to Maldonado and beyond, and cars going to points east able to bypass the peninsula altogether, shortening travel time to those locations and reducing the associated emissions of pollutants. Another obvious pro would be making Camino Lussich a safer road for everyone.

From a "greater good" perspective, the thought of not having a considerable number of cars traversing all of the Peninsula through various indirect roads to go to eastern parts of Punta del Este, La Barra, Manantiales, El Chorro, Balneario Buenos Aires, etc. appears to be a clear winner. Detractors (neighbors of the Lussich road) refer to potential users as "those who are in a rush, even while on vacation," but I find that disingenuous.

The truck drivers supplying all of the coastal towns have no reason to be on the waterfront in Punta del Este, or to be driving through Maldonado town, or the neighborhoods of Pinares, Aidy Grill, Lugano or Rincon del Indio, not to mention Roosevelt, Artigas and Chiverta avenues. Neither do residents or vacationers going to those eastern neighborhoods or towns. Removing this traffic from city roads will be an improvement to traffic and quality of life throughout Maldonado and Punta del Este.

Judging by the markers on the side of the road right now, the proposed plan does not involve cutting across the Lussich Arboretum, but rather an expansion of the existing road that already borders it. All things considered, the greater good could be better served by expanding this road.

Is this an oil platform?

Is it on its way to very far away from the shore? We know the tender for natural gas and oil prospecting was awarded a few weeks ago, but it still was quite a surprise to see this contraption this morning.


It appears to be static, sitting there...

In the news: article on real estate investing in Uruguay in Nuwire Investor

An overall positive article published today about real-estate investment in Uruguay, quoting some people you may know too!

Jazz at El Naufrago Bar this Saturday

ChamuJazz page on Myspace.

José Ignacio in the first line of fire in new zoning law debate

 

Maldonado Municipality has been rushing to approve a new zoning law for the Department before its exit from government this year end, and has chosen José Ignacio as the test case for its multi-disciplinary approach of planning and consultations. This is no accident, as small and remote Jose Ignacio has had an uncharacteristically strong and active community that according to one resident, “has made it what it is today.” This concerned and community-active resident adds that the current profile of Jose Ignacio –the low density, absence of tall buildings, restricted size of commercial areas, etc.— “is what we managed by sitting on the [Jose Ignacio] bridge and saying ‘no-one goes through until they understand what this place is about.’”

Pretty lame stuff elsewhere, but in apathetic, no-notion-of-local-community Uruguay, José Ignacio and its organized –and mostly foreign and wealthy— residents are daring trail-blazers.

If we were to look at the entire process with a bit of malice in interpreting City Hall intentions, we could venture that the thinking is “Once we clear the Liga de Fomento de José Ignacio, we have a blank check all the way to Punta Ballena” where the other hub of concerned, mostly foreign, wealthy and active citizenship resides, in the form of the Unión Vecinal de Punta Ballena y Laguna del Sauce. Unfortunately, that leaves practically all of the Punta del Este coastal corridor in between, where the big bribes are generated and where the largest damage is usually inflicted.

The re-zoning of the entire coast of Maldonado seems to have taken an irrepressible urgency for Mayor Oscar de los Santos, which has raised eyebrows among us, and outspoken complaints from presidential candidate and former Tourism Minister Pedro Bordaberry, who took the opportunity to voice them days ago at a well-attended real-estate event.

Specifically for José Ignacio, City Hall proposes the addition of one commercial street (to the three already allowed) within the 36 blocks of the “village proper,” permission for formerly banned lodging establishments, and the construction of a wooden walkway stretching from La Juanita – the area between the Jose Ignacio bridge and the traffic circle at the entrance of the town off Ruta 10 – all the way around the peninsula. Also under consideration is a “short-cut” road through the countryside, parallel to the sea, meant to relieve high-season traffic congestion.

As email servers worldwide overheat under the weight of José Ignacio´s NIMBY drive, the Liga de Fomento is getting ready for its August 17 meeting with the Mayor, where it plans to submit the results of an opinion poll conducted among neighbors, as well as studies by experts it hired to conduct its own assessments.

The immediate sources of contention are the addition of a commercial street in a town grid that is essentially 6 blocks by 6 blocks, and allowing setting up posadas, or bed&breakfast establishments, which in the view of residents will require further commercial activity to service them. Also, the wooden walkway is seen as destroying the current visual character of the place, with suggestions to replace it with a well kept trail with proper signage and some landscaping.

Other proposed changes include moving the beach concession stand several hundred yards further east from its current spot right by La Huella restaurant, and setting up a docking spot for sporting vessels (whatever that means, sailboats, canoes?) on the Mansa side, the beach looking West.

Among concerns regarding the process, neighbors cite the limited scope of involvement in this planning exercise with a 30 year horizon. They note that there are professionals advising City Hall from a scant number of areas, such as architecture and environment, with the notable absence of the Ministry of the Interior to address security and Economy and Tax authorities to address the viability of commercial activity off-season, in order to provide incentives to do away with the ghost-town syndrome that affects towns to the east such as La Barra, Manantiales and José Ignacio.

Stay tuned...

Thomas Hatchel wins architecture award

I hope this doesn't become a trend, and by this I mean every ESC member turning out to be world-famous this or award-winning that. It can be awkward for some of us with fewer achievements to show... :-) In any case, yes, Thomas Hatchuel shared the good news today with us, see his note below:

Good news everyone!
I have just won The Camden Quality Design Award 2009 on one of a building I have designed in the UK before our departure to Uruguay.
It is a funny story because the building was an old Coffin factory, (Coffin=dead people box) and you can imagine that no one wanted to touch that building but a great developer decided to go for it and asked us to change it into apartments!
The building was full of constraint because it was at the back of other buildings but we managed to get planning and the building is very true to the final design, it sold very quickly and apparently the occupiers are very happy with it.
See you all very soon I hope.

If you read Spanish, you can read more about Thomas and his family in this article appeared in La Nacion a couple years ago. Google also throws up a bunch of mentions of his prize winning tennis.

File for permanent residence or perpetual 90-day visa?

Our friend Eddie just posted in the Southron forum an interesting take on the issue of whether or not to apply for residence papers. There may be other matters of a material nature to support his reasoning (such as the right to bring a container with household goods if you become a resident) but basically, Eddie's article is spot on. Without further ado...

I have been asked this question lately. I reviewed the comments under Visa, Permanent Residency and Citizenship threads and there do not appear to be a full treatment of this question. I am, therefore, posting my take on this subject. It may be helpful to someone.

I think there are good reasons for filing for permanent residency status, whether one intends or live here for good, or intermittently.

1. Convenience.

The way it works now, is that once you file for permanent residency, you automatically become a de-facto resident while your application is in process. The term here is "en trámite". You are no longer subject to the 90 day visa rule. This gives you some flexibility in your timing of entry and exit. (Note however, that when you are "en trámite" you still have to get an entry and exit document for a nominal fee);

2. Costs Savings.

If you plan on coming and going multiple times during a year, then you have to renew your tourist visa each time. The cost for this is quite negligible, I understand. The cost burden is in the transport in and out of Uruguay, say to Buenos Aires, which is the favorite temporary destination for this purpose (By Buquebus or Plane, around $200 round trip each time), and the accommodation cost while in BA. Depending your comfort level, this could be hefty;

3. Ease of Application.

The application filing fee is minimal. As a complete stranger in a new Country, we get intimidated by horror stories of the application process. This was probably true in the past, and still true in some jurisdiction (Montevideo). Now, you can just drop in and file your application in Maldonado Migraciones office. There is no need for appointment. Of course you still have to meet the same documentation requirements (Extensively expounded in the threads). However, even if your documentation is not complete but meets the basic requirements for filing, then you are immediately an en-trámite de-facto resident. If your application is not approved for lack of complete documentation you will remain in this limbo status in perpetuity. Unless the process changes of course. So, even if you are not sure about your residency intent for now, you enjoy two advantages (a) You get to stay or go whenever you please, and (b) If in the future you decide to stay, your paperwork is already started;

4. Slow but fair and clean process.

As far as I know, the residency process is clean. There is no need for an "insider" to fast-track your application. There is no need to bribe anybody. It does take some time for some kind of decision to be handed out. There is really no compelling reason to use a Facilitator for filing your application. As Newbies we tend to go this route. There are pros and cons on this. But quite often this route will cost you money, delay the process, and cause you aggravation. If you decide to go the Facilitator route for convenience, make sure you engage a good one. Some of the recommendations in the related threads [online] may not be appropriate anymore. Time changes, people changes, performance changes over time.

In summary my answer to this question is this: If you are unsure about your residency intention in Uruguay, you are still better off filing for permanent residency.

Get the basic documents required, file it in Maldonado (There may be other hospitable jurisdictions as well) by yourself or with someone who can speak the language, get your filing number, and let the process take its course. Depending on your intention, you may or may not care about the outcome of your application, but that's okay too.

Eduardo de la Mancha